9/16/2023 0 Comments Blender market auto walk cycle![]() ![]() ![]() Well, as you have pointed out, it really doesn’t exist in the UI. Of course, you could script such editing, but why would you want to, since the tools already exist in the UI? There is no one absolute standard choice of tools, they are generally chosen based on the work being done, based on suitability to the task. I also used the NLA tools to create slow-motion segments so the action could be seen more clearly. In this case exact repetition of the motion was a plus since it was for instructional use. After creating a formal cycle for the stroke I used the NLA editor to repeat the motion along with forward motion of the entire body as keyframes. For example I did some swimming animations that illustrate the basic structure of various swim strokes. When actions repeat with little variation this can be very efficient. You can use the NLA Editor, which requires careful planning of your animations so the strips can be properly blended. ![]() Elements from a walk or run cycle can be useful here, but it’s the kind of action that really needs to be done as a custom sequence. This is useful when the changes are pretty much unique, for example a running jump up to a tree branch from a standing start. You can directly keyframe the motion changes. If the character moves faster or slower, the walk cycle gets faster and slower and/or switches to a run cycle which then gets faster or slower.Īs an example, this can be done a number of ways. Some tweaking is frequently needed, but not to the extent an unconstrained IK target would require. Constraints do this pretty much transparently for any given length of animation, keying only the start and end of their Influence. Since the unconstrained bones will move with their roots, you’d have to reposition and keyframe EVERY frame of the motion to insure they stay in place. The hands and feet have to stay in place as the arms or legs push or pull the body upwards. Think about climbing a tree, for example. The same applies for motions like a hand grasping a static object. That’s pretty much what constraints are designed to do – constrain certain kinds of motion. Constraints are a relatively easy way to accomplish the same thing with an armature. That’s what happens in real life, with gravity and the body’s weight securing the foot on the ground through a move. Given these considerations, it’s obvious that with anything but the simplest and most stylized motion (such as a walk cycle) needs some method to plant the feet and have them remain in the same place regardless of what the rest of the body (armature) is doing. ![]() And all these considerations are magnified by the dramatic aspect – is the character moving happily, stealthily, injured, boisterous, etc.? A character’s pace can be very expressive! Altogether, not simple, not obvious. The weight shifts of the body as it moves also affect how fast or slow it advances with each step, so that has to be accounted for. A very linear portrayal of this looks robotic for this reason. Humans tend to flow through the motions (even clumsy humans like me ) and that means non-linear accelerations of the feet and the body as it moves, i.e., a foot moves through the cycle faster at some points than at others. Preventing “slide” in cyclic walking with forward motion is problematic for a number of reasons, but the main one is that it is inherently very difficult to get a perfectly linear “pace” in the cycle if doing human motion. If you want to portray naturalistic motion, then you need to deal with the nuances, and they are neither obvious nor simple. Walk cycles are used extensively in games because they are economical representations of walking, but they are just representations. Change direction, change the terrain, even change the character’s emotional state, and you change the equation of motion. A formal “walk cycle” is not true walking, it is a patterned imitation of walking, and works fine as long as all you want to do is get from A to B in a straight line on a flat surface. It is a controlled fall forward, and each step meets a different “terrain” feature, sometimes large, sometimes small, sometime negligible, but each step has to adapt to it. Nothing about character animation, when done well, is obvious or simple, nor is it formulaic. Also I still wonder if there isn’t some more obvious and simpler method that could be used, as this is such an important part of character animation. ![]()
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